Being my travels down those great two lane highways of this nation as well as news I learn about them from media sources. Since I'm also very interested in historic preservation, there will be a lot of that as well.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

A Dixie Bathroom Break

Mileage on the '11 Malibu was 10,066 (how's that for Route 66?) on leaving and set the trip odometer to "0". Drove to Dwight on Il-47 and picked up I-55 and took it to Springfield. Usually, we do this on Route 66, but we were in a hurry to get to Springfield and out to the fair.

We were planning to use the facilities at that nice Funk's Grove Rest Area (which also has some good Route 66 stuff), but there is road construction on I-55 by it and it is closed.

OK, McLean is the next stop and there you find the Dixie Truckers Home, a definite place with a Route 66 heritage. It appears that the place has been bought by Pilot, one of my favorite places to stop on my travels for gas price, usually the lowest in an area. Where you find a Pilot station, all other gas around it will also be low.

Pilot is doing a major renovation of the truck stop part, so the area where you buy souvenirs and other items is closed, as are the bathrooms (which can use some serious upgrading anyway). The restaurant is still open and you can walk through it to get to temporary bathrooms set up in a trailer behind the place.

Here's hoping they will keep that Route 66 hallway that used to be the Illinois Route 66 Museum and Hall of Fame. I'd also like to see the clocks with world times returned as they were in the past.